Month: December 2013

A dream of Japanese snow

Posted on by Inara Pey

Yuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island; Inara Pey, December 2013, on FlickrYuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island (Flickr) – click an image for full size

Wherever Jac Mornington builds, I follow. It’s an immutable law of Second Life. True, I may not be right behind him (fortunately for him!), and in following him, I may well be treading where others have trod ahead of me (because his builds are to SL photographers as magnets are to iron filings: an irresistible force). Nevertheless, wherever he builds, I will surely gravitate.

Already this year I’ve covered three of his region-wide builds: Black Basalt Beach,  Baja Norte and Sol Existence, all of which have been stunning in their presentation, look and feel.

Yuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island; Inara Pey, December 2013, on FlickrYuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island (Flickr)

Now comes Yuki No Yume – A Dream of Snow. A homestead region, it presents to the visitor a winter scene of rural Japan, which is both simple in style and stunning in execution, with some marvellous attention to detail and lots of opportunities for the SL photographer.

The arrival point is located in the north-east corner of the region, atop a rocky outcrop, upon which sits the ruins of an old temple. with a forlorn bell, the rafters from which it was once suspended having long since split and collapsed, walls holed and partially boarded-up and with doors broken , one might think the temple deserted but for the lamp burning outside and the game of ban-sugoroku apparently in progress inside the temple shell.

Yuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island; Inara Pey, December 2013, on FlickrYuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island (Flickr) – click an image for full size

A path winds its way down the side of the rock face and past a small shine, down a snow-covered slope to the temple gate. Here sits a small spring, doubtless a place where pilgrims travelling up to the temple would have once stopped to refresh themselves in warmer days before starting on the steep climb. Now the water is frozen, and the gate stands as the entrance to the rest of the region.

Three other buildings occupy the land; a hot spring bathhouse and two small, traditional houses, neither of which is used as a residence so visitors need have no fear of invading anyone’s privacy. All three sit amidst a snow-covered landscape of trees, rocky outcrops, winding paths, streams, waterfalls and lakes (both frozen and with open water), all arranged to create a very natural environment surrounded by tall mountains, so suggestive of a highland rural region in Japan.

Yuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island; Inara Pey, December 2013, on FlickrYuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island (Flickr) – click an image for full size

Where the visitor goes from the temple gate is entirely up to their own muse; paths are available, but most of the region is open land, inviting people to wander where they will. There is plenty to occupy the eye here, both indoors and out, so it’s worth taking time in any exploratory and picture-snapping forays into Yuki No Yumi.

If you follow the stream up towards the waterfall, you’ll likely come across a group of Japanese macaques, otherwise known as snow monkeys, doing what they do best: sitting in a hot spring bath as the snow falls around them. Elsewhere, deer take advantage of an overturned crate of apples, seals sit on a snow-covered sand bank, apparently wondering who the hell has been messing the with water to make it solid, and red-crown cranes dance upon the partially frozen lake; all of which make for some excellent photograph opportunities.

Step into one of the houses, and you’ll find an opportunity to play a hand of Hanafuda (koi koi), listen to music on an old gramophone,  sit and warm yourself by an open fire, enjoy a cup of tea or rest for a while on a bed – assume the fox and rabbit will allow you!

Yuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island; Inara Pey, December 2013, on FlickrYuki No Yume, Sand Bar Island (Flickr) – click an image for full size

This really is another wonderful build from Jac and his partner, Rie Silverfall, one which is every bit worth the time taken to visit as his other in-world creations. For those who like taking photographs of the places they visit, there is also a Flickr group where images of Yuki No Yumi can be shared.

And as I mentioned Japanese macaques earlier, here’s little film of them in real life :).

Related Links

SL project updates: week 49 (3): Fitted Mesh, AIS v3, Oculus Rift and more

Posted on by Inara Pey

The following notes are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday December 6th. A video, courtesy of Northspring, can be found at the end of this report. The numbers in braces after each heading (where given) denote the time stamp at which the topic can be listened-to in the video.

TPV Developer meeting (stock)
TPV Developer meeting (stock)

Release Channel Viewers

Name Updater Release Candidate

[00:17-01:40]

The Name Updater RC viewer, also released on December 3rd, has been updated to version 3.6.12.284506. This contains no functional changes to the viewer itself but contains two sets updates, hence the odd name.

The first of these is a fix for the viewer updater where problems can occur if a new update to the viewer is downloaded by the updater but deleted somehow prior to  the installer itself being executed. The second set of updates cover:

  • Changes to how the viewer packaging is done and cleans-up how the viewer channel (used to recognise the viewer and allow it to connect to the SL servers when logging-in) is distributed and established
  • Makes some changes to the viewer start-up parameters
  • Changes the package names to a uniform format which is the same for all of the operating system platforms.

The aim of these changes is to further improve the viewer build process and reduce the number of places changes have to be made in order to change the viewer channel name when building different flavours of the viewer (LL’s own or a TPV).

The RC has been performing well in terms of low crash rates, etc., and looks set to be promoted to the de facto release viewer in week 50 (week commencing Monday 9th December), and so will see-out 2013 as such if this is in fact the case.

Google Breakpad

It is possible a further Google Breakpad RC may appear in week 50.

Maintenance Release Candidate

[02:00-02:16]

The Maintenance RC viewer 3.6.12.284430, released on December 3rd  suffered an abnormally high crash rate, prompting it to be withdrawn in order for it to be looked at and crash issues diagnosed / fixed. Once these issues have been dealt with, the viewer will be returned to the release pipe.

Project Interesting Viewer

[39:24-41:07]

The Project Interesting (aka “viewer-interesting”) RC viewer has been in RC for a while and is suffering a high number of crashes, which are currently being investigated by the Lab. Unlike the Maintenance RC viewer, it has been left as an RC simply because issues are being found with it, because of both the number of people using it and the broad range of systems on which it is being run and which the Lab couldn’t possibly account for in their own testing.

At the moment, the Lab are trying to put together an update for the viewer, but they still have a couple of “pretty serious” crash issues which have yet to be resolved. However, the hope is that this may actually make it out into the world before the no change / code freeze window comes into force  on Monday December 16th, which affects all server releases and all viewer release channel releases. This would allow the updates made to get further “in the field” testing during the code freeze / holiday period.

That both the Project Interesting and Maintenance RCs are experiencing issues is something of a validation of the new viewer release process introduced by the Lab earlier this year, in that the problems being encountered with both of these viewers are not blocking the viewer pipe, unlike the situation of just over a year ago, where a series of crash issues with the old beta viewer completely halted all significant viewer updates.

Fitted Mesh Project Viewer

[02:20-03:16 / 32:05-39:20]

As noted in part 2 of this week’s report, the Fitted Mesh project viewer received a set of updates (including new avatar skeleton files) in the form of release 3.6.12.284458. The project viewer has so far received a very low number of downloads – somewhat unsurprisingly – with the total number of people using the viewer thought to be under 2,000. This means that it hasn’t as yet been used widely enough to generate meaningful crash statistics.

The response to the skeleton changes within the viewer has been “good”, and the viewer has seen a reasonable number of JIRA issues raised under the FITMESH project, etc., although the Lab cautions against anyone using the changes contained in the viewer in anything other than an experimental version of their own viewer until such time as the code reaches a Release Candidate status. The latter will not happen before the end of 2013, although there may be a further project viewer update for Fitted Mesh before the end of the year.

One thing which may happen when the viewer is approaching a release status is that it will bring with it a “significant bump” to the viewer version number, not the least of which is because users on viewers without the code may see some bizarre, or at least oddly fitting clothing on avatars using garments weighted to use the new system, as noted in my launch preview of the Fitted Mesh project.

Overall, it appears that the Lab is “pretty happy” with the way the work is developing, although they would like to see more people involved in using / testing the viewer, particularly anyone proficient in rigging mesh garments, etc, especially given the nature and state of the project, as Oz Linden pointed-out:

This is one of those times when things are in flux and can be changed… We have never made changes to the avatar skeleton casually, and we’re making a round of changes now; we’re wildly unlikely to make another round of changes for years. So if there is feedback to be had, this is the time to have it.

So if you are a creator and do have an opinion on how things might be better handled within the Fitted Mesh solution, now is the time to be involved and potentially influencing the Lab’s thinking. not every idea put forward may be taken-up; but on the other hand, waiting until the changes have been made and the viewer released will certainly mean that any ideas someone may have will have passed their sell-by date.

The Delay in Opting for this Solution

Part of the general feedback voiced when the Lab announced the Fitted Mesh viewer came in the form of questioning why it took the Lab so long to reach the decision to go with the approach. Part of the reason appears to be that mesh deformation and Server-side Appearance projects required the same expertise with the Lab to be applied to them, and so were vying with one another for manpower – and the decision was made to give the SSA project priority.

Oculus Rift Update

[24:46-26:26]

During the Server Beta meeting on Thursday December 5th, VoidPointer Linden indicated the work on making the viewer operate with the Oculus Rift headset was now “feature complete”, and that a (presumably project) viewer will be appearing “soon” with support for the headset. How soon is open to question, given VoidPointer had to be somewhat circumspect. However, following the TPV developer meeting, it appears that “soon” might actually be a little more in the realm of “later” than may be the case.

Oculus Rift viewer: "soon" probably not as close as either
Oculus Rift viewer: “soon” probably not as close as either “real soon (TM)” or “pretty soon (TM)”!

Continue reading “SL project updates: week 49 (3): Fitted Mesh, AIS v3, Oculus Rift and more” →

The Drax Files Radio Hour blog launched

Posted on by Inara Pey

radio-hourI blogged recently on the upcoming Drax Files Radio Hour, which launches on January 10th, 2014. At the time, I remarked that the show has a Facebook page and that I hoped it’ll also gain a website as well.

Well it has. Launched today is The Drax Files Radio Hour blog, complete with an introductory message in voice and text by Draxtor.

A major element for the new show is that of community involvement – getting input and feedback from all of us who engage with Second Life and virtual worlds and who are active users. As such, the new blog is very much a part of the show, and the first post invites people to drop a note to Drax and Jo on what they might discuss in the inaugural broadcast.

They’ve also done a lot to make it possible to contact them at the show:

You can even contact them via an in-world avatar account, The Drax Files Radio Hour (draxfiles), and leave an IM or voice message. Here’s some more from Drax on the show (also in the show’s initial post):

As regulars here will know, Drax and I regularly discuss matters raised as a result of the highly successful The Drax Files video series. What probably isn’t known is that the discussions are very far-ranging and cover a huge amount which never gets into print. As such, I’m confident that The Drax Files Radio Hour will bring the same breadth and depth  – and, most importantly balance to the table and all things to do with Second Life and virtual worlds are discussed, analysed, taken apart and put back together again.

The broadcast time for each episode will be 07:00 SLT every Friday, starting on January 10th, 2014. As mentioned last time, I’ll be following the show closely (if not more  than just following 😉 ), and the show’s blog is now listed in my blogroll (right).

Related Links

Xmas Expo 2013 and Breedables Fair in support of RFL of SL

Posted on by Inara Pey
Xmas Expo 2013
Xmas Expo 2013

The 2013 SL Christmas Expo is underway. While the official Relay For Life Second Life 2013 events season is officially closed, the Expo is in support of RFL SL, and is being held on four regions adjacent to that of the American Cancer Society. Proceeds will be donated directly to the RFL of SL 2014 campaign.

The Expo, which runs through until December 15th, brings together merchants and entertainers from across the grid to help us prepare for the holiday season and get in the mood for Christmas as the New Year, and features a number of special events and activities.

Running alongside of the Expo is the 2013 Magic of Christmas Breedables Fair, which is being held on two regions which are linked to the Expo via the RFL Christmas Festival region, which adjoins the American Cancer Society’s HQ in Second Life.

The 2013 Xmas Expo – click to enlarge

The Expo regions are laid-out so as to be as low-lag as possible, with shops arranged around the outside of each of the four regions to form a continuous street scene with a Victorian feel to it, with cobbled road surfaces and gas lamps providing the light along the footpaths at night. There are 84 content creators with stores along the streets, each of whom has at least one or two RFL vendors selling selected items the proceeds of which go directly to RFL of SL. In addition, scattered through the Expo region are market stalls and also special RFL vendors offering a range of items, the proceeds of which also go directly to RFL of SL.

In the middle of each of the four regions are the special event areas, including a frozen lake for ice skating (free skates available for both Big ‘Uns and Tinies) the event stage, where entertainment will be provided throughout the length of the Expo, and the Expo Theatre, which will, on December 11th and 12th, be hosting a special production of Wit, Margaret Edson’s first play which, in 1999, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (see more below).

RFLXE-8_001
Xmas Expo 2013

Continue reading “Xmas Expo 2013 and Breedables Fair in support of RFL of SL” →

SL projects update: week 49 (2): Oculus Rift Support “soon”

Posted on by Inara Pey
Maestro Linden (foreground) leads the Server Beta meeting. The colony of bats to his left is Voidpointer Linden, who is working on the Oculus Rift project
Maestro Linden (foreground) leads the Server Beta meeting. The colony of bats to his left is VoidPointer Linden, who is working on the Oculus Rift project

Server Deployments week 48 – recap

As always, please refer to the week’s forum deployment thread for the latest news and updates.

  • Main channel, Tuesday December 3rd: received the maintenance package deployed to BlueSteel and LeTigre in week 47

Issues with Main channel deployment

Two issues were discovered post-deployment of the Main (SLS) channel  updates:

  • BUG-4637 “”Can’t rez object at { x, y, z } because the owner of this land does not allow it”when rezzing any object from Library”
  • BUG-4635 “”Selected / sat upon:” incorrectly shows objects that are not actually selected or sat upon. “

Maestro has verified a fix for the latter issue, which he described as occurring with vehicles which get into a “funky” state, ” The vehicle gets ‘bad’ if it loses the passenger right at region crossing,” he said by way of explanation, leaving them appearing to have somebody sitting on them per parcel accounting rules, but who is effectively a “ghost rider”.

It is hoped that these fixes will form a RC release together with some additional small updates prior to the no change window / code freeze kicking-in on Monday December 16th.

Animation fixes

Commenting on the llGetAgentInfo() update deployed to the RC channels at the Server Beta meeting on Thursday December 5th, Maestro Linden said:

The only change which should be visible normally is a fix for avatars with crouch / crouchwalk animation overrides. Previously, the llGetAgentInfo() LSL function would only return AGENT_CROUCHING if the avatar was playing the default crouch or crouchwalk animations, so if your avatar had an AO which replaced those animations, (either with llSetAnimationOverride() or possibly with classic AOs too), scripts couldn’t tell when you’re crouching. But with the fix, the function is looking at whether you’re actually crouching, regardless of which animations are playing.

He went on to note that there is a similar issue with ground sit, wherein if you sit on the ground, the viewer only presents the ‘stand’ button if your avatar is playing the default ground sit animation. Originally, llsetanimationoverride() allowed the ground sit animation to be replaced with something else, but this led to situations where a seated avatar could not stand up.

To fix this latter issue, Kelly Linden implemented a workaround for this problem by making “ground sit” play two animations, the default ground sit and any custom ground sit specified by the user, with the priority of the default ground sit hopefully being low enough not to clash with any custom animation also used. The change was viewed as a compromise to make the AO system compatible with viewer 2x/3x, and is why the SL wiki alludes to in ‘ State “Sit on Ground” will play the default animation in addition to any override set. This is required for correct viewer behaviour. ‘

SL Viewer

The Fitted Mesh project viewer was updated to version 3.6.12.284458 on December 5th.  The update addresses:

  • LL internal JIRA MAINT-3311 (Skinning to some collision volumes is broken)
  • STORM-1985 (Mesh garments don’t adapt to changes in avatar shape)

In addition, it includes the updated avatar_lad.xml and avatar_skeleton.xml  file developed by Jeremiah Linden in accordance with his notes on FITMESH-2 (notes dated December 2nd, 2013).

Oculus Rift Support

Oculus Rift: release of a "feature complete" viewer with Rift support "soon"
Oculus Rift: release of a “feature complete” viewer with Rift support “soon”

Also attending the Server Beta meeting, Voidpointer Linden reported that support for Oculus Rift is feature-complete and should be released “soon”.

There will be a formal announcement when a viewer with Rift support is released (no date as to when this will be as yet), however, a few clues were given out during the meeting:

  • The same viewer can be used in both a “normal mode” and a “Rift mode”
  • There will be no apparent changes to the viewer / UI when in “normal mode”
  • Frame rates when in “Rift look” will be very much down to the user’s own hardware  (unsurprisingly). Voidpointer apparently attended the meeting using a Rift headest and reported that he was getting frame rates ” pretty comparable to normal,” but also noted he has a good machine on which to run SL.

Details on the presentation of the UI, etc., were not provided, as these are apparently still under wraps. In the past, it had been indicated that the UI had been set to be floating “overhead”, just outside of your normal point-of-view, so you had to look up to see them. Whether this is still the case, remains to be seen.

There have been reports of people using the Rift (in general, not just with SL) suffering from nausea and motion sickness. Commenting on this, VoidPointer said, “I’ve been using it for a while now and I don’t really have problems with nausea at this point. [But] the Rift is very sensitive to frame rate, vsync, and other things.   Before the rendering was fully hooked up or optimized,it wasn’t as fun, I’ll say that.” He also revealed the Rift headset can be somewhat adjusted so it can be worn over glasses, if necessary.

As the Rift is not currently commercially available, those with the headset and SDK will be able to make use of the new viewer once released, and will require a DVI cable connected to the headset and their system for the video output and a USB connection for the head tracking capability (so the screen view follows the wearer’s head move to present them with the expected view). Commercial versions of the system will use HDMI for the video.

Rod Humble tries out Oculus Rift in a photo released on July 18th
Rod Humble tries out Oculus Rift in a photo released on July 18th

There was a lot of additional talk about possible future options for presenting in-world views with the Oculus Rift, however, as Voidpointer advised, “Heh, let’s get Rift support first, then talk about more :).”

Whether support for the Rift will be announced before or after the end-of-year break remains to be seen.

LEA open round six of AIR land grants

Posted on by Inara Pey

On December 1st, the Linden Endowment for the Arts committee announced the opening of the next round of land grants is now open in the Artists in Residence (AIR) programme. For artists not familiar with the LEA or the land grant process, the following is taken from the formal announcement:

The LEA Land Grant program seeks to promote and nurture the arts in Second Life, through a five-month land grant to recipients. Recipients can be individuals or groups interested in creating or curating art, or proposing cultural projects which would require/utilise a full-sim build and can be completed within the allotted time frame. The LEA is able to offer land grants through the generosity of Linden Lab.

Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant curated by Eupalinos Ugajin
Moving Islands [Rafts], a round 5 AIR entrant curated by Eupalinos Ugajin
Twenty regions, donated by Linden Lab and managed by the LEA, are generally offered under the land grant programme, and successful applicants will be given the use of one full region for a period of five months. The region may then be used on an individual or group basis for such diverse activities as:

  • Full sim exhibitions and / or immersive installations
  • Curated projects, especially those which have a connection to physical exhibitions and events (mixed reality).

Artists should take no more than 3 months to execute their build, so that they have opened to the public for at least the last 2 months of their grant. However, artists may also open their installation ahead of the three-month build deadline, and many artists in the past have used their land to have multiple exhibits. What is important is that any project accepted into the programme must be ready within 3 months from the date the land is granted, and this time-frame should be considered (and reflected) in all applications.

Musiclandia by Livio Oak Korobase
Musiclandia by Livio Oak Korobase

The announcement goes on to state:

Criteria

We feel one of the strengths of the LEA committee is that we come from different backgrounds – artists, architects, curators, historians, etc. – all of whom have different ideas on what makes virtual art great. We share a passion for this project, emboldened by differing viewpoints. What this means for the LEA Land Grant applicants is that there is no one ‘right’ project. Some committee members like immersive builds, others enjoy highly technical and scripted work, still others look for projects embracing collaborative, curatorial, or education projects. Some might wish to select those who have a history of successful exhibits in SL, while others are passionate about providing experiences to new and emerging artists. This is great news for applicants, as it means that ANYONE has a chance at getting sim, provided you show us you have an idea for a great project (even if it isn’t completely thought through, and we realise that this will most likely change in your working process).

APPLICATION TIMELINE

(Dates subject to change by LEA in the event of unforeseen circumstances.)

  • Applications open – December 1, 2013
  • Application deadline – December 30, 2013
  • Final Decision Committee Deadline – Mid-January, 2014
  • Notification period, and selection of alternates if need be – Around January 18, 2014.
  • Sim handover and public announcement – January 31, 2014
  • End of round – July 1, 2014

HOW TO APPLY?

Applicants should complete the form at the end of the LEA blog entry, taking care to provide as much information about the proposal as possible and include relevant SLurls and web links to their work (if possible) in order to help the LEA committee make an informed decision.